Newsmaker | AAP backroom operator, top Delhi minister: Who is Kailash Gahlot, the latest party leader under ED scanner

Gahlot’s name found mention in the investigating agency’s remand application of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, submitted in court last week, which said that the party’s communications in-charge Vijay Nair, whom the ED accuses of playing a key role in orchestrating the deals as part of the Delhi excise policy case, was living in Gahlot’s government bungalow in Delhi’s Civil Lines.

An insider-outsider

Gahlot, 50, is a Jat leader who is from the Mitraon village in Delhi. He is one of the rare AAP politicians who was born and brought up in Delhi.

He went on to study Political Science at the Sri Venkateswara College and, later Law, both at the University of Delhi. He then practised as an advocate in the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court for 16 years. It was during this time that he came into contact with AAP leaders and decided to contest elections.

He joined the AAP before the 2015 Assembly elections and won the Najafgarh seat by a thin margin of 1,550 votes. He would go on to win the seat again in 2020 by over 6,000 votes.

He was appointed minister of Transport, Law, Information Technology and Administrative Reforms in 2015, and has held on to the Transport and Information Technology departments. After the arrest of former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia last year, also in the excise policy case, he was appointed Delhi Home Minister.

#WATCH | After questioning by the ED in the money laundering case linked to the Delhi Excise Policy, Delhi Minister Kailash Gahlot says, “Whatever questions were asked to me, I answered all of them… The government bungalow was allotted to me in Civil Lines, but I have always… https://t.co/n1GkuwukLg pic.twitter.com/b0ZoJ3bRi9

— ANI (@ANI) March 30, 2024

He also took over as the Finance Minister and presented the Budget last year.

“AAP has several migrant leaders who appeal to the massive migrant population in the city. Gahlot stands apart as his family has been living in Mitraon village for generations. When he came to the party, the leaders saw him as someone who would have an appeal among the rural Jat population of the city, while also attracting educated people,” said an AAP insider.

Over the years, the AAP had utilised Gahlot’s legal experience for a range of issues.

The ED summons are not Gahlot’s first brush with investigating agencies after joining politics. In 2018, several locations, allegedly associated with him and his family members, were raided by the Income Tax Department.

While the IT officials said documents indicating tax evasion worth several crores were found, AAP said the raids were politically motivated.

After the raids, Kejriwal had hit out at the BJP government.

“Friendship with Nirav Modi and Mallya and raids on us? Modiji, you got such raids conducted against me, Satyendar (Jain) and Manish (Sisodia)? What did these raids accomplish? Were you able to find anything? Or not? Why don’t you apologise to the people of Delhi for constantly harassing the government they elected before such raids?”he had said on X.

AAP leader and now minister Atishi had alleged that the Centre was trying to “intimidate” Gahlot as he was at the time leading the party’s legal battle against disqualification of its 20 MLAs in the Delhi High Court and with the Election Commission.

She also alleged that Gahlot has been targeted since he was instrumental in implementing the AAP’S flagship scheme, which provides doorstep delivery of essential public services.

Since then, Delhi’s governance structure and the nature of investigating agencies’ inquiries has undergone a sea change.

At a governance level, the L-G has the final say in the decisions made by the ministers as well as the service conditions of the bureaucracy. In this set-up, Gahlot is seen as among the few ministers in AAP’s Delhi government who has not got into regular tussles with officers.

“Since he joined office in 2015, he has managed to get things done while mostly keeping officers on his side. There have, however, been a few instances where he has got into arguments with officers over policy formulation wherein his decisions were questioned, but none that escalated to holding press conferences,” said an AAP leader.

One of the incidents he was referring to happened in 2018, when Gahlot accused the then transport commissioner of trying to override his authority. The matter was finally resolved after the officer was transferred.

Gahlot has helmed the transport department through one of its biggest changes – the introduction of the Electric Vehicle policy and has managed to get over 1,000 e-buses inducted into the city’s ageing bus fleet.

Another cloud that hangs over him is the BJP’s allegation of irregularities in the contracts given for maintenance of buses. In 2021, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA)  wrote to the CBI recommending an inquiry into a Delhi Transport Corporation deal related to the purchase and Annual Maintenance Contract (AMC) of 1,000 low-floor air-conditioned buses. A committee formed by then Lt Governor Anil Baijal had flagged various lapses.